Those are gorgeous!!
The only time that I remember battling dendrites like that was on a high
voltage divider resistor. The problem occured only in the areas where the
volts/m where high. Sorry, but I dont remember the numbers anymore. So I am
curious about the field strength across this area. I ended up covering the
resistor with thick layer of a low dielectric constant material that adhered
very well to the surface of the resistor (plasma cleaning before applying!).

The electric field is going to concentrate itself in the material with the
lowest dielectric constant. So if that is represented by small crosssection,
you will find a very high field strength in that location and therefore a
strong tendency to grow dendrites there. That is also why I expect that by
far most of your samples have dendrites growing starting in the narrow spots
in the middle of the part (capacitor?, high voltage?, short distance?).

Any more details available?

Ahne.


  -----Original Message-----
  From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Joseph Spicuzza
  Sent: Friday, February 22, 2002 12:27
  To: [log in to unmask]
  Subject: Re: [TN] Dendritic Growth...here's the link...


  http://www.stevezeva.homestead.com



   -----Original Message-----
  From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of [log in to unmask]
  Sent: Friday, February 22, 2002 1:50 PM
  To: [log in to unmask]
  Subject: Re: [TN] Dendritic Growth...


    Hi Phil!

    The pictures are up! Go to:

    http://www.stevezeva.homstead.com

    Those are the best examples of dendritic growth as I've ever seen! Where
did this take place? In a SIR chamber?

    -Steve Gregory-



      Hi Steve,

      Thanks for offering to post my pictures of the dendritic growth.  It
will
      be interesting to see what the consensus is although since I sent the
email
      out I have been able to get my hands on the defect and take a close
enough
      look to answer the question.  Let's put the picture up and see what
the
      responses are.

      Phil